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Pi vs BeagleBone-Black

Former Member

So, just over a year on from the initial availability of the R-Pi and the new BeagleBone Black is upon us.  They've obviously taken a leaf out of the RPF's playbook and produced a cost reduced version at a price only marginally above the Pi.

 

I find it interesting that the compromises are very different, for example there's a proper PMIC and the ethernet is not troubled by being connected to USB, however the on-board HDMI seems less capable.

 

Other differences are in the documentation, I'm currently viewing the pcb gerbers for the beaglebone..  Have yet to see any sign of those for the R-Pi a year later. There's even an up to date devicetree capable kernel too.

 

Technology has also moved on somewhat, we get a 1GHz Cortex A8 which is better than the Pi, along with various other stuff and lots more GPIO's too.

 

Ok, so it's clear that I like the look of the new beaglebone, and given the price I'm likely to put any further R-Pi plans on hold until I have a chance to play with this. It's also making things like the Olinuxino-maxi I bought recently look very slow/expensive while still being cheaper than the similarly specced Olinuxino-A13

 

Some details of the beaglebone-black here http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=BeagleBoneBlack

 

What do the rest of you think ?   I don't expect this to displace the Pi anytime soon, but I expect it to be very attractive to those people who don't simply want to put XBMC on it and duct tape it to the back of the TV..

Parents

  • I'd like to add another pro for the BeagleBoard Black.

     

    With the exceptions of the integer real time processors PRU-ICSS (not sure at this point why that is), and the PowerVR GPU for

    well known reasons, the AM3359 technical documentation from TI is excellent to the point of overwhelming. The Technical Reference

    Manual is over 4000 pages. No I did not accidentally add any zeros !

  • in reply to gdstew

    Gary Stewart wrote:

     

    With the exceptions of the integer real time processors PRU-ICSS (not sure at this point why that is), and the PowerVR GPU for well known reasons, the AM3359 technical documentation from TI is excellent to the point of overwhelming.

     

    You're right about the proprietary GPU, that seems to be an endemic problem for open source in the industry.  It's not true for the PRU-ICSS though.

     

    The PRU-ICSS is fully documented in the Technical Reference Manual SPRUH73C, with the entirety of chapter 4 (250 pages) devoted to it.  Also, there is a full package of PRU-related materials on Github, including more documentation and source code of the PRU's PASM assembler, a Linux loader, demos, etc.  I've even checked that the assembler compiles and it does.

     

    The BeagleBone materials on Github are at https://github.com/beagleboard/am335x_pru_package

     

    The PRU has been used successfully in quite a number of projects as a quick web search shows, and this long predates the BeagleBone Black since the original BeagleBone uses a slightly different version of the same AM3359 SoC.

     

    Morgaine.

     

    Addendum: Repeating the link to TI's wiki pages on PRU which I gave in my first post on this thread, in case it was missed when looking for docs.  There is a developers' link at the bottom of that first page.

  • in reply to morgaine

    Morgaine,

     

    A search of the TI website for SPRUH73C turns up with zero results. SPRUH73H gives me the same technical reference manual I already have. That manual has a very brief

    two page description of the PRU-ICSS but little else, not even a block diagram. According to that technical reference manual this is an upgraded version of the original so it

    may be that the documentation hasn't been released yet. I have also searched the TI website for PRU-ICSS which turns up 5 hits, all of them from entries in forums. A couple

    of the entries clearly show that more hardware information is available but no hint as to which one or where.

  • in reply to gdstew

    Gary Stewart wrote:

     

    A search of the TI website for SPRUH73C turns up with zero results. SPRUH73H gives me the same technical reference manual I already have. That manual has a very brief

    two page description of the PRU-ICSS but little else, not even a block diagram. According to that technical reference manual this is an upgraded version of the original so it

    may be that the documentation hasn't been released yet. I have also searched the TI website for PRU-ICSS which turns up 5 hits, all of them from entries in forums. A couple

    of the entries clearly show that more hardware information is available but no hint as to which one or where.

    It seems that SPRUH73 has shrunk from H to C.  I tried to find some Am335x documents and it looks like the TI site is currently screwed up.  Maybe the people who know how to fix it are all at Design West (formerly ESC).

     

    The PRUSS documentation is definitely in version C.  Maybe TI decided to put it into a separate document, but have screwed up access to that document or else it hasn't been approved for release.  You might try searching for SPRUH73C on the Internet to see if you can download it from somewhere else.

     

    It's also possible that TI decided to omit PRUSS from the Am335x TRM and make people use the wiki.  If that's true, it's too bad because the TRM is a lot better formatted and prints better.  Some PRUSS documentation has never been in the TRM, such as opcode encoding (which is in the wiki).

Reply
  • in reply to gdstew

    Gary Stewart wrote:

     

    A search of the TI website for SPRUH73C turns up with zero results. SPRUH73H gives me the same technical reference manual I already have. That manual has a very brief

    two page description of the PRU-ICSS but little else, not even a block diagram. According to that technical reference manual this is an upgraded version of the original so it

    may be that the documentation hasn't been released yet. I have also searched the TI website for PRU-ICSS which turns up 5 hits, all of them from entries in forums. A couple

    of the entries clearly show that more hardware information is available but no hint as to which one or where.

    It seems that SPRUH73 has shrunk from H to C.  I tried to find some Am335x documents and it looks like the TI site is currently screwed up.  Maybe the people who know how to fix it are all at Design West (formerly ESC).

     

    The PRUSS documentation is definitely in version C.  Maybe TI decided to put it into a separate document, but have screwed up access to that document or else it hasn't been approved for release.  You might try searching for SPRUH73C on the Internet to see if you can download it from somewhere else.

     

    It's also possible that TI decided to omit PRUSS from the Am335x TRM and make people use the wiki.  If that's true, it's too bad because the TRM is a lot better formatted and prints better.  Some PRUSS documentation has never been in the TRM, such as opcode encoding (which is in the wiki).

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